Known towel dispensers generally comprise a housing with a towel outlet, usually arranged at the front of the housing, and a towel inlet usually arranged at the rear of the housing. The towel loop depends from the outlet and the inlet. A storing means is provided in the housing to store a clean towel roll and a dispensing means usually provided by a drive and pinch roller dispense towel from the clean towel roll through the outlet. A take up means usually provided by a roller onto which the used towel is wound takes up used towel from the towel loop. In general, when one pulls on the exit leg of the towel loop from the outlet, fresh towel is fed out by the dispensing rollers. A drive connecting mechanism between the dispensing rollers and the take up roller normally takes up an equivalent length of used towel onto the take up roller.
In the case of some such dispensers, the towel loop is left continuously exposed. In other cases, such as for example, in British Patent specification No. 1460177 the towel loop is withdrawn into the housing after use.
However, the problem with all these known towel dispensers is that they all present the towel to the user such that the plane of the exit leg and return leg are effectively facing the user. This presents two major problems. Firstly, to dry ones hands it is generally only possible to use one leg of the towel, namely, the exit or front leg. It is usually not possible to grip both legs of the towel between the hands for drying or to use the rear leg. Thus, a considerable length of unused towel is withdrawn into the housing after each use. This leads to considerable wastage. The second and more important problem is that to dry ones hands properly, it is necessary to put one hand behind the exit leg of the towel loop and the other in front of it, and then to twist the towel through substantially 90.degree.. This makes it particularly difficult for one to dry ones hands and by virtue of the fact that the towel has to be twisted through 90.degree., the effective length of the towel for use is considerably shortened. Furthermore, when the exit or front leg of the towel is being used, the return or exit leg, in general, gets in the way.